Lane MacDonald '88-89 Joins List of ECAC Hockey’s 50 Best

ALBANY, N.Y.—Former Hobey Baker winner and Olympian Lane MacDonald '88-89 has been named one of the top 50 players in league history, ECAC Hockey has announced.

As part of its 50th-anniversary celebration, ECAC Hockey has compiled a group of its top 50 players to recognize the storied history of the league and honor its significant players. The league released the seventh installment of five honorees Wednesday. The top 50 players were determined by a selection committee made up of former coaches and media members, who selected the honorees from 145 nominees (47 defensemen, 73 forwards, 25 goaltenders).

MacDonald, who captained the Harvard men's hockey team to the 1989 NCAA championship and graduated as the Crimson's all-time leading goal-scorer, is the fourth Harvard player named to the list. Hobey Baker-winning defenseman Mark Fusco '83, three-time All-American Joe Cavanagh '71 and three-time all-league pick Gene Kinasewich '64 were previously selected

The seventh segment of honorees is: MacDonald; Clarkson defenseman Bill Blackwood, a two-time all-America selection; Brian Cornell, the Cornell forward who posted points in 32 straight games in 1968 and 1969; forward Jeff Hamilton, Yale's all-time leading scorer with 173 points; and goaltender Tim Thomas, who led Vermont to its first Frozen Four appearance in 1996.

Following a year off to play with the U.S. National Team and compete in the 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary, Alta., MacDonald led the Crimson to a 31-3 record and its first NCAA title in any sport. He earned the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey's top player as well as the Bingham Award, given to Harvard's top senior male athlete.

In 1989, MacDonald was also the Beanpot's Most Valuable Player and an ECAC and NCAA all-tournament pick. He was named to the All-America, All-ECAC and All-Ivy League first teams for the second time in his career and captured the Tudor Cup as Harvard's MVP for the second time.

MacDonald also led Harvard to the 1987 ECAC championship, earning selection as the tournament Most Outstanding Player. He remains Harvard's all-time leader with 111 goals and ranks second on the Crimson's career points list with 225. He scored a Harvard-record 52 power-play goals in his career and was named to the ECAC All-Decade Team for the 1980s.

All current and former teams' impactful players were reviewed in comprising the list of candidates for the special team. Five players from the top 50 all-time team will be released every two weeks throughout the season leading up the league championship semifinals and final March 18-19 in Atlantic City, N.J.

The top 50 players were determined by a vote of a selection committee of 10 individuals: Joe Bertagna '73, former student-athlete at Harvard, former hockey commissioner of the ECAC and current commissioner of Hockey East; Ed Carpenter, former sports information director at Boston University; Bill Cleary '56, former student-athlete, head coach and director of athletics at Harvard; John Connolly, longtime sports reporter at the Boston Herald; Dan Fridgen, former student-athlete at Colgate and head coach at Rensselaer; Mike Gilligan, former head coach at Yale and Vermont; Lou Lamoriello, former student-athlete and head coach at Providence and current CEO, president and general manager of the New Jersey Devils; Mark Morris, former student-athlete at Colgate and former head coach at Clarkson; Tim Taylor '63, former student-athlete at Harvard and head coach at Yale; and Adam Wodon, editor of the College Hockey News website.